Obstacle course is back as a regular event in the 30th Southeast Asian Games.
Six events that will be held in an obstacle course have been restored following the acceptance of Laos as a fourth country to join the event.
Rep. Abraham Tolentino, who is the Philippine SEA Games Organizing Committee sports committee head, said this yesterday after he and officials of the Philippine Olympic Committee gave an update of ongoing preparations for the biennial meet.
“Imbis na mabawasan, may naibalik pang events sa pagsali ng Laos,” said Tolentino, who was a guest at the weekly Philippine Sportswriters Association Forum with POC president Ricky Vargas and spokesman Ed Picson at the Amelie Hotel in Ermita, Manila.
Six events in athletics were supposed to take the place of six events in obstacle course because three members countries were only joining.
But Laos managed to field athletes in the obstacle course, joining early entries from Thailand, Myanmar and host Philippines.
Because of this, obstacle course can be classified as a regular event in the biennial meet set from Nov, 30 to Dec. 10 to be held in different venues in Clark, Manila and Subic.
There are now a total of 56 sports disciplines and 529 events, which will be held, added Tolentino.
On the other hand, Vargas said a total of 11,250 athletes, coaches and officials will be around for the Games.
And host Philippines will field the biggest delegation, with 1895, while Indonesia is second with 1718.
Then, there’s Singapore with 1581, and Thailand with 1462.
“This will be the biggest SEA Games that we will be hosting. So we will have a lot of guests. We will have to unite to make this a successful hosting,” said Vargas.
Last week, events like the men and women’s 5,000m, men and women 10,000m and men and women 20,000m walk have been added in athletics.
On the other hand, there are also plans to have women water polo to replace women’s baseball, which only drew two entries.
